Financial Literacy Resources

Fostering Financial Literacy in ESL Classrooms Using New Media Tools

In these lessons students learn about managing money, banking, credit, debt, home financing and loans while practicing listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.

By integrating new media tools into the curriculum we hope educators will be able to engage ESL learners by making unfamiliar financial concepts as concrete as possible.

Educators – How to Use This Site Target group – from high beginning to low intermediate adult English language learners, in particular low-income, recent-arrival immigrants and refugees, to high-intermediate and advanced ESL students in academic-credit classes – these lessons could be adapted for noncredit and lower-level students.

Four steps

Try out these lesson plans or some of the activities

Use the pre and post assessments at the end of each lesson
to gauge impact

Bring your students to the site to try out the new media tools

Help us to evaluate the effectiveness of this curriculum by
using the teacher and student surveys

Students

Tell us what you think — fill out our surveys at the end of the lessons or activities.

Six Lesson Plans

This unit focuses on language acquisition for English Language Learners specifically with regard to vocabulary and grammatical structure pertaining to financial literacy. Students learn about managing money, banking, credit, debt, home financing and loans while practicing listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.

Students explore different payment options, focusing on using checks. They evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of having a checking account as well as the methods of cashing and depositing a paycheck. The lesson emphasizes the cost-saving effects of a checking account and its benefit to low-income, recent-arrival immigrants.

3. Paying with Plastic: An Introduction to Credit CardsHigh-level beginning adult ESL students who are literate in their first languages

In this unit, students are introduced to the benefits and drawbacks of using credit cards in the United States drawing upon their prior experience with credit and debt. They explore notions of interest and annual percentage rates while assessing their own wants, values and needs regarding spending – and saving-money.

4. Budgeting Made Simple: Money Management 101Low-intermediate to intermediate ESL learners who have recently immigrated to the United States

In this lesson, students will examine their personal spending habits, identifying and gathering data about their monthly expenses, and they will use online tools to create a home budget and long-term savings plan.

5. Becoming a HomeownerIntermediate- to high-level ESL students
Students analyze the pros and cons of renting versus buying a home, learn about the basic steps involved, and explore Internet resources that relate to becoming a homeowner.

6. What to Spend and How to SaveHigh-intermediate to advanced ESL students
To raise students’ awareness of their spending habits by helping them create a budget to plan and save for short-term and long-term goals and to familiarize students with online tools that can assist with this process.

Quiz Developed by Sylvia Yau
Sylvia Yau is a candidate for the M.A. degree at San Francisco State University, with a TESOL focus. She previously worked as a corporate lawyer, specializing in financial services and corporate law and received her J.D. degree from from Boalt Hall School of Law (UC Berkeley).

Glossary of Financial Terms

Credit history, Credit report: A credit history is a record showing individual consumer debts and whether they were paid on time and as agreed. Credit institutions have created detailed documents, called credit reports, of your credit history, which they provide to lenders, landlords, and others.

Default: Failing to do something you agreed to do. If you have a credit card, the most common default is not making a payment on time. If you rent an apartment, you are in default if you don’t keep the apartment in good condition.

Defective product: Any merchandise you buy that is broken when you buy it or does not function the way the seller said it would.

Fraud, fraudulent: A trick or deception intended to gain information or something of value.

Identify theft: Unauthorized use of someone’s personal data, for example a driver’s license or social security number, for any unlawful purpose, such as to obtain a credit card or loan.

Opt out: To tell financial companies that you do not agree to their sharing of your personal financial information with other companies that offer loans or other financial services.

Phishing: Using electronic communication to obtain personal information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by pretending to be someone you know or have a relationship with, such as your credit card company.

Scam: A way to cheat people and trap them into giving money.

Solicit, solicitation: Solicit means to ask someone for help, money, or information. Credit card solicitations are sent by credit card companies that purchase lists of consumers and use them for mass mailings to offer credit card services to potential customers.

http://www.hud.gov/webcasts/archives/buying.cfm
Webcasts on Buying a Home; section of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website that contains links to various webcasts on such topics as buying and owning a home, avoiding predatory lenders, and so on.

RELATED PROGRAMMING FROM KQED-KTEH, PBS and NPR

Depending upon student proficiency in English, the following programs offer topical coverage of the economy. Educators can visit these websites and select video and audio clips on different topics for their student group.

ESL Insights

KQED Education's ESL Insights offers a space for ESL educators to explain what they do, share ideas and media rich resources and engage in discussion about what inspires them and what challenges them. Posts are written for and by ESL practitioners.